Stem Cell Transplant Unit and Birch Day Case Unit opens

Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust's state-of-the-art Stem Cell Transplant Unit and Birch Day Case Unit for blood cancer patients will be officially opened by patients, hospital staff and members of the Plymouth Leukaemia and District Fund (PDLF) tomorrow (Monday 14 April). 

The Stem Cell Transplant Unit opened its doors last spring and the first patients started receiving their treatment in modern facilities, which our patients helped to design. The old Birch ward has been converted into a modern Day Case Unit so patients can receive their treatment and no have to stay in hospital overnight.

The Trust has invested £3.4 million in the unit, which includes 10 single rooms with en suite facilities for patients with acute leukaemia or lymphoma who need protective isolation because their immune systems are depleted due to chemotherapy treatment. These patients have to spend up to a month at a time in these isolation facilities. 

Privacy Smartglass has been installed as a partitioning system in the corridors and rooms so that patients can have privacy or see into the ward for company at the flick of a switch. These enhancements and other features were paid for by generous donations from PDLF.

The Day Case Unit has 18 chairs, three beds and a treatment room. It also has modern facilities for blood stem cell collection.

The new ward and Day Case Unit is a further expansion of the transplant service and since it opened patients from Devon and Cornwall no longer have to travel to Bristol or London for unrelated donor stem cell transplants.

To celebrate the hard work, support and involvement of everyone who helped to make the Stem Cell Transplant Unit possible, an official ceremony is being held, following the Annual General Meeting of the Plymouth Leukaemia and District Fund (PDLF).

Professor Adrian Copplestone, Consultant Haematologist, said: “We are absolutely delighted with the facilities that we are now able to offer our patients and they are all the more extraordinary because our patients helped us to design them.
“We are incredibly grateful for the support we have received from our patients and the Plymouth and District Leukaemia Fund, who have provided a significant financial contribution towards the unit, ensuring the isolation rooms are as homely for our patients as possible.

“It is because of the PDLF that we have been able to offer our patients a range of comforts, including televisions, comfortable chairs and internet access so that patients can Skype with family and friends while they are in isolation.

Dr Hannah Hunter, Programme Director for the South West Peninsula Transplant Service said “In the last year we have now been able to treat 21 patients who would previously have to have travelled elsewhere.  The patients feel really comfortable in the new ward and this helps reduce their worries.”

The Stem Cell Transplant Unit will be officially opened after the AGM of the PDLF, which starts at 7pm on Monday 14 April 2014.